A Concept Paper by Dr. Alok Kumar Gupta
The world has transcendent from the era of famous Socratic dictum “Knowledge is Virtue” to the era of Michel Foucault’s theory “Knowledge is Power”. Contemporary world is a witness to Knowledge Economy in place of Industrial or Traditional Economy. Today, the strength of a nation-state is supposed to be measured in terms of the strength of its knowledge society. Greater the development of knowledge society greater would be its economy. Greater the economy means greater would be the wealth. Greater the wealth means Smithsonian’s dream come true, ‘the wealth would trickle down to the lowest strata of the society’. To put it precisely, the life of the poor and the marginal would get better off and the hiatus between the rich and the poor would shorten. Alas! This should have been the case.
Why it is not so?
Simple reason is, ‘Governance is bad’. Wealth is there and has always been there. Amartya Sen opined the fault is with the process of distribution. Many others have also said the same. The million dollar question is why there is faulty distribution of resources. The answer again is, ‘Governance is bad’. Many theories have been advanced as to how we can improve upon governance? How good governance could be achieved? This has lead to a huge discourse on Governance. Which varies from theory of minimal state, to neo-liberalism, corporate governance, new public management (NPM), network governance, meta-governance and many must have been in the pipeline. Scholars have also advanced the theory of social engineering, legal reforms, electoral reforms, market reforms to name but a few. However, in this entire discourse I am of the strong opinion that the erstwhile scholars have failed to emphasize on the theory of “Human Engineering”.
What is Human Engineering?
Human engineering is simply to nurture the human nature. It is human nature to blame it on others. We always blame it on the government or the state for all ills or the vices that our society suffers from. The real problem is that most individuals/citizens are corrupt in their own little or more capacity. They never mind taking short cuts to achieve what they want at any moment of their life. Big or small, reputed or common, they all talk about how corrupt the others are? Irony is that they never look at themselves. When they are affected by any rule or law and are on the receiving end of it, they never mind bending the law as also at times breaking the law. The ground rule is that, it must serve their interest even at the expense of others and the state. Therefore, the need of the hour is to nurture the human nature to prepare the right kind of social capitals. There is hardly any doubt that if there are right kind of social capitals, governance would automatically be the best. Social capital here means the citizens of the country. Scholars have talked about nation-building and state-building. However, they have hardly emphasized on the concept of citizen-building. Engineering of human nature is the road to citizen-building. I assure one and all, if this happens, governance will take care of itself. Long ago Plato, the ancient Greek Philosopher in his master piece Republic enunciated the philosophy of the “Rule of Philosopher King” and the “Rule of Philosophy” for his ideal state. Most scholars have branded his ideal state a utopia. However, the ideal state may be a utopia but the underlying principle was relevant then, is relevant now and shall continue to be relevant for all times to come. The ‘rule of philosophy’ in stead of ‘rule of law’ envisages that only philosophers should rule or rulers must be philosophers. To put it simply, what it means only those who know (means who are knowledgeable) should rule or those who rule they must know (means must be knowledgeable).
Plato was of the opinion that a Philosopher King shall rely more on his wisdom than on the law. He further stated that if the state is in the hands of Philosopher-Kings then even the best of laws would be irrelevant for the simple reason that such rulers shall rely more on their wisdom than on the law. The contemporary relevance is that if there are rulers as enlightened as the Philosopher King of Plato then it would automatically lead to good governance irrespective of the quantity and the quality of law in a state. The remarkable idea is that the Philosopher Kings of Plato are the product of the well-knit state-sponsored education system of the state. Those who prove to be the best during the course of the education process and withstand all the elimination stages are destined to be the rulers. All the citizens are essentially enrolled into the process of education at the behest of the state. It means both rulers and the ruled are educated to better comprehend their rights and duties as a member of the state and civil-society. Ruled i.e. the citizens also are knowledgeable and understand that they need to obey the commands of the rulers as the rulers would always act for the common good and would never act in accordance to their vested interest or in any partisan manner. It means there is greater legitimacy of the system as citizens have greater faith in the ability and intention of the rulers. Therefore, the onus lies on the education system to prepare both the rulers and the ruled to provide good governance a continuum or permanence.
It logically means if the education system itself is faulty the rulers and the ruled both as products of the faulty system would be improper. Therefore, to ensure the quality of both the rulers and the ruled utmost emphasis is required to be given to the education system of the state. When we talk about the education system of the state, it includes all aspects of education i.e. kind of education which shall train all aspects of individual’s life i.e. body, mind and the soul (This has been deliberated upon by Aurobindo also in his philosophy of the “Spirit of Total Education”); content of the education which means the curriculum designing (what should be taught to different age-groups of citizens); how should it be taught (mechanism to deliver the education); who should be allowed to teach (there should be ethics and training for the trainers); and so on. Therefore, the education system is required to be deliberated upon in an extensive manner to make it increasingly wholesome and to make it contribute towards the task of citizen-building.
How the task of citizen-building could be achieved?
Citizen-building is dependent upon human engineering. Human engineering in turn is dependent upon knowledge, which in the final analysis is dependent upon the education system as an important tool of imparting knowledge. Therefore, there is an imperative to initiate a discourse on education which shall include the discourse on knowledge. This is because first we need to decide what is that knowledge that should be imparted to the citizens? Of course, Socratic knowledge which is virtue, not the knowledge which is power to exploit the others. Only value-based education can provide that kind of knowledge. However, the irony is that the prevailing system of education in the country has produced more of “intellectual criminals” than ‘intellectuals’ in real sense of the term. Intellectual criminals are more dangerous to any society than the real criminals. The reason being that a criminal damages or liquidates a number of lives which could be counted, whereas an ‘intellectual criminal’ strikes at the very foundations or root of the society. The criminal acts of such intellectuals keep the society in the state of permanent chaos to serve their own vested interests. The prevalence of bad governance or poor governance is always in their interests. Their acts are always galvanized with cosmetics of genuine and common interests of the people i.e. in the garb of pursuing the common interest of the society they pursue their own interest. Their expressed aim projects them as servant of the people but in reality they are the master of the people. In the garb of serving the people they serve their own interest at the expense of the state, the people and the governance. Undoubtedly, they are rot in the system so they produce rot for the system. Consequence of it is: overall decay of the system; crisis of legitimacy in the eyes of the people; crisis of governability which means government lacks the capacity to govern. The final analysis of which is lack of governance or good governance. Citizen-building could be achieved only when the capacity of the citizens are enhanced, sharpened, and groomed into proper direction so that it contributes towards good governance.
Capacity building for good governance involves an “investment in human capital” which is a holistic process requiring the State to develop its own capacities, those of civil society, the private sector and other constituents. Among the mechanisms for human resource development (HRD) are: aside from formal education, distance learning, accreditation programs, in-school training and on-the-job training. Regardless of age, people must live with the escalating pace of change, and learning must allow them to embrace all kinds of changes in all settings throughout their lives and must champion the cause of good governance.
Therefore, the remedy lies in the rectification of the instrument which produces the social capital which is the unit of any system of governance. Such an instrument is: Education. Therefore, in this concept paper I have simply set the theme about the significance of education in the process of governance whether it is state-centric or the citizen-centric. I am of the strong opinion that it is high time there should be a debate on the role of education in the process of enhancing or improving governance. Such a debate must include governing education in the country. Until and unless the state governs the education in the right direction change in governance would never be constructive and for better.
